Making an international impact with legal action from home
This summer, I spent 12 weeks working alongside Bellingcat and the Global Legal Action Network’s Justice & Accountability Unit. My desire to work with Bellingcat stemmed from my passion for open-source investigations and familiarity with Bellingcat’s work. As the former Deputy Director of the Venezuela Accountability Project here at the University of Toronto’s International Human Rights Program (IHRP), I was already familiar with conducting an open-source investigation into violations of international law. In addition, Bellingcat is viewed by many as a leader in public interest open-source investigations, with its investigators contributing to the Berkeley Protocol, the world’s first international guide on best practices in open-source investigations. Navalny, a documentary which won the 2022 Academy Award for Best Documentary, follows, in part, a Bellingcat investigation into the poisoning of Russian political leader Alexei Navalny. Likewise, the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) describes itself as an “independent organisation made up of legal practitioners, investigative journalists and academics.” GLAN seeks to promote social justice through legal action, focusing on four core themes: war and occupation; environmental and economic justice; migration and border violence; and accountability and supply chains. GLAN’s legal work has included, for example, bringing litigation against the United Kingdom for importing goods produced using forced labour.
My most substantial project this summer was a lengthy research guide on the elements of crimes against humanity for use by the European Union Advisory Mission Ukraine, which I spent several weeks writing. This involved thoroughly examining the facts of crimes against humanity case law from the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Ultimately, my research was used to assist Ukrainian legal professionals in understanding the elements of international crimes.
Beyond that project, I also worked on Bellingcat’s Global Authentication Project (GAP). Composed primarily of volunteers and led by Bellingcat investigators, GAP aims to “expose wrongdoing and to detail and clarify incidents using open-source information.” The GAP project I contributed to is an investigation into incidents of civilian harm in Ukraine. For myself and my fellow GAP members, this work involved scrutinizing digital evidence for clues that might help investigators corroborate an incident. A great deal of this work involved geolocation — the process of identifying the exact geographical location where an incident occurred. Generally, geolocating evidence requires an investigator to search for identifiable or unique visual clues which suggest that the incident may have occurred in a particular location. Avid TikTokers might be familiar with Trevor Rainbolt, a content creator renowned for his lightning-fast geolocations. Unlike Trevor Rainbolt, however, my geolocations often involve spending hours examining a piece of evidence in detail for any clues as to the location of an incident, a painstaking process of elimination and informed guesswork. Ultimately, I truly enjoyed my work and am grateful to Bellingcat and GLAN for allowing me to join their team this summer.
Still, this summer was not without its hiccups. Bellingcat is based in Amsterdam. However, I had to work remotely because two of my oldest friends were getting married in Saskatchewan this summer. As a result, I endured the usual challenges associated with remote work—namely, staying motivated and on task. Bellingcat’s horizontal organizational structure compounded these difficulties. At Bellingcat, researchers are encouraged to pursue the work which most interests them. The same applies to summer students. As a result, myself and my “fellow fellows” and I were largely in charge of our own summer experiences, which enabled us to choose the projects we found most interesting. However, occasionally, this caused us some lulls in the workflow if, for example, we had finished our work and there was no room for us to contribute to other projects. Overall, however, my experience with Bellingcat and GLAN was overwhelmingly positive. As an unusual two-time IHRP Fellow, I am likely best suited to evaluate the fellowship experience. It is hard to overstate how valuable my time as an IHRP Fellow has been. Last summer, with Amnesty International, I contributed directly to Amnesty International Canada’s legal work, writing memos, drafting letters to United Nations Special Rapporteurs, and drafting a section of a factum. This year, with Bellingcat, I worked on various legal and non-legal projects aimed at advancing international justice in Ukraine. As a student interested in public interest work, IHRP fellowships have allowed me to explore work in various public interest fields in unique ways. For other students fighting the pull of Big Law, the IHRP fellowship is, without a doubt, the best opportunity to explore other kinds of legal practices.
